So largely due to my little group not knowing enough people to play at particular times we can all get together it seems I will be running something with two of my friends.

I'd like to run the Haarlock Legacy, Damned Cities, House of Dust and Ash, Tattered Fates, and Dead Stars in that order.

So far it looks like the make up will be:

1) An investigative arbite (that one detective class from IH)

2) A telekinetic psyker, (the combat psyker from IH as well)

I am planning on making one of them a scion of Haarlock, but other than I have some following questions:

1. What do you think I need to watch out for in terms of these characters?

2. How do you think I should adjust the adventure in terms of enemy force size for just two players.

3. How would you deal with this situation?

4. Do you think I should make an NPC to follow them around and just even out the numbers?

1. All of their missing abilities. They are going to lack a lot of tools because of them only being two, and I can already see things like stealth failing miserably for them since neither classes are the masters in doing that (so far I can remember). But if they can use their head, actually talk with each other instead of going "hero and sidekick" and behaves do I not think that 2 players are that much different for say 4.

2. The short answer is yes. All of the books needs some adjustments one way or another, all groups being different. But I cannot come with any advices to what changes you should make.

3. I would sit down and talk with them so I really really knew what it is that they want out of playing this system. You have 2 players now, meaning that it is way easier to make all happy, and also meaning that if one of them are feeling left out in one way or the other have you more or less lost your group.

4. I would personally say no. A NPC party member are almost never the answer, and are almost always trouble. I have at least never met one that I have good experiences with... on the other hand did my old GM that used them always use them to stab us in the back, so that is properly why.

PS sorry if the answers are too short and not that helpful again, but it is 3 AM over here and the old brain are getting some negative modifiers on its Int stat right now.

With just two players I would make the suggestion of having them both be scions of Haarlock, possibly make them siblings. This makes them equally important to the events in the story.

While I would avoid NPC party members, encourage them to use contact networks and NPC groups. This is where the rules for bribary, peers and contacts will really help. Remind them that they don't have to personally do things they are not skilled at and create 'sub-plots' for them to find people who can. These guys shouldn't go with them on mission, but can pass them information they might fail miserably to aquire on their own. If there is a large firefight they can try to hire some gangers or something to storm a building, while they go in the back for example.

If they don't like, or won't do, that then as a general rule NPC opponents should never outnumber low to mid rank PCs by more than 3:1. Scale these encounters appropriately. Also you might want to go the extra mile designing maps for combat encounters (or being more leniant when saying 'yes' to questions like "Can I dive into cover?"). Tactics and good use of cover can prevail if the PCs fight smart so give them the opportunity to do so.

Start them at at least rank 3. This means they will be more adept in their own fields. Early rank 1 parties tend to rely on weight of fire, not precision to suceed and this is not an option in a two man group (unless they grab hirelings).

If you or your players don't mind the idea, try using the horde rules from DW when dealing with larger groups. Small hordes get no damage bonus to harm players, and it actually limits the amount of return fire while making individual scum easier to kill.

Pretty much what everyone else said... it's possible, but it'll certainly need some tweaking on the side of the GM, as some parts are quite nasty.

Take your time, read through the whole campaign, check your player's characters, double check, cross-reference etc etc. I think you want to be as prepared as possible for this task, but if it works out, it'll certainly make for a nice, memorable game!

The ranking won't be an issue. All the adventures have suggested ranks, Damned Cities is Rank 4, and the rest go up from there.

I agree with making them both scions, now that I think about it. It does put too much focus on one player if not, and it should lead to some interesting discussions about issues that arise later in the game. Maybe even some backstabbing.

I think I'll read over the contacts and informants part of IH again and heavily suggest that they use this to their advantage as well.

I'll ask them how they feel about NPC players as well since the group number is so low.

Thanks for the advice so far, if anyone else has anything to add please do.

Character creation is next week, I'll update with that info to see if anyonce can see any inherent things that will bit me towards the end.

The ranking won't be an issue. All the adventures have suggested ranks, Damned Cities is Rank 4, and the rest go up from there.

I know, but the game is perfectly completable at other ranks, and not all GMs pay attention to that guidance (I certainly don't, and I know my old GM doesn't because we finished this adventure as a group of rank 2s). The ranking guidance also assumes a party of at least 4 players. Its a very ballpark figure.

I'll rephrase my original suggestion. Start them with more XP than you would give a 4 party team. Around 30% more should be about right.

That might work out better, giving them a larger starting XP I mean.

I think instead of making a character I'll have one of the NPCs in the adventure itself pal around with them. Not necessarily any better skillset per say, but it should help even out combat.

I know Damned Cities suggests Constantine pal around with them if necessary, and I think it'd make his reappearance in Dead Stars more powerful.

Well a player managed to find another person interested in playing so we ended up with 3 players.

1) Arbite build for investigating, noble got shadowed blood, took the tainted blood of Malfi as a background, and is investigating the Calaxian Serial Killings. Plan to give the revelation that the killings have been perpetrated by the Tyranite Cabal, and all the victims were Scions of Haarlock's line. He'll be the Scion in the campaign.

2) Psyker that is the Templar Calaxis build, going telekine, took Darkholder backround modification for Voidborn. Took the Living Nightmare background. Funnily enough got the sanctioning brand where his eyes had to get replaced, so whatever he saw for living nightmare made his eyes explode.

3) A forge world guardsman who's focusing on a Heavy Weapons build. Took the Mara Landing Massacre survivor, so that should be fun for Dead Stars returning to Mara.

First session is next week they'll be playing Damned Cities, I plan on having Constantine follow them around to have a well rounded group.